The American Far Left has taken this business of Israeli "kidnappings" of civilians a couple of days before the Shalit kidnapping and attack on Kerem Shalom, and essentially blames the situation on Israel. Chomsky, dude, they were Hamas operatives. That means they are terrorists, not civilians. I realize that makes no difference to a famous linguist, but some of us do see a clear difference. Second, it takes months to build a tunnel and plan the attack that took place at Kerem Shalom. If your theory was correct, the Kerem Shalom attack would have taken place in about 4 months from now. Third, the Israelis went in there because they had intelligence - proven correct - that a pending attack from Gaza of a serious nature was imminent. They went in, injured and killed nobody, grabbed the two terrorists and came out back into Israel hoping to prevent whatever large attack was planned. While you obviously would have justified any attack by the Palestinians on Israel, with or without the arrest of these two men, let's be clear that Israel was entirely out of Gaza and had just elected a PM who ran on a platform of evacuating 90 - 92% of the West Bank. Despite those moves, over 1000 had been fired at Israel since its disengagement and before Shalit's kidnapping. Speaking of bombings, I recall that in 1982 the PLO was launching attacks on Israel's north. Nice to see you blaming Israel and the US for all the world's problems. What a surprise. I was surprised, however, to see you say, ""Unfortunately, one can generalize a comment of Uri Avnery’s about Dan Halutz, who “views the world below through a bombsight.” Much the same is true of Rumsfeld-Cheney-Rice, and other top Bush administration planners, despite occasional soothing rhetoric. As history reveals, that view of the world is not uncommon among those who hold a virtual monopoly of the means of violence, with consequences that we need not review." Need I remind you that it is Hizbullah that launched this war without any provocation? Doesn't that disprove what you said, at least with respect to Israel. I mean, how do you justify a situation where Israel leaves Lebanon, gets the UN to certify that it left every last inch and also to check the provenance of Shebaa Farms, and then when attacked by Hizbullah you go on and on about Israel's responsibility for everything from Hizbullah's existence to, um, I missed it, did you mention bird flu?

intellectulal phonies and moral useful idiots of the ultra left wing- self jew hate scociety---THE CLASSCIC APOLOGIST. THEIR I.Q. IS LOWER THAN A GERBAL, THEIR MORALITY IS PERVERTED--THEIR ONLY CLAIM TO FAME---SELF-HATRED. THEY SHOULD VISIT THE FINNISH EMBASSY AND TEHRAN AND LIVE THEIR FOR A WHILE--THEY ARE THE ULTIMATE HYPOCITS WHO DECLARE-"EVERYONE IS EQUAL"--EXCEPT ON MY BLOCK", ALSO KNOWN AS THE SUSAN SURANDON SYNDROME, SSS. THEY HATE THEIR BIRTHRIGHT LIKE ESAU--SO THEY WILL BE LIKE THE EREV RAV----. INTELLECTUAL MORONS WITH A PEN-- A CHIMP COULD WRITE WITH MORE REASON. ET-PHONE HOME

Brilliant. Chomsky cherry picks his factoids to fit into his single dominant, grand theory for explaining everything in the universe: the evils of the US and any country "too close" to it. There are absolutely no other explanatory factors in any of his accounts. Ultimately, all roads lead back to the US or "the west" in some incarnation. The whole world and all its problems are of its making. There is something bizarrely narcissistic in the account -- everything is just an extension of US/west/Israeli power. We are hte only actors. Everyone else just reacts to us. On top of this simplistic theory ("hegemony" explains everything) lies a web of detail, all neatly laid out to buttress it. and make it look deep. This passes for "nuance" in the world Chomsky occupies. I like to think of Chomsky as a factory: he constantly needs to up the production, and to strengthen the brand recognition.

GAZA CITY (AFP) - Israeli special forces have seized two wanted Palestinians in the country´s first arrest operation in the Gaza Strip since it withdrew from the coastal area last year. Paragraph-1 Contains An army spokesman said the two men were Hamas militants who were "in the final stages of preparing a large scale terror attack in the coming days." Paragraph-2 Contains "These Palestinians were transferred to Israel where they will be questioned," the spokesman said, without giving further details. Paragraph-3 Contains Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said that the two detainees, brothers Osama and Mustafa Abu Muammar, were sons of a Hamas activist but were not themselves members of the radical Islamist movement. Paragraph-4 Contains The father was admitted to hospital after being injured in the Israeli raid, Abu Zuhri added. Paragraph-5 Contains A senior officer told Israeli army radio that the raid was aimed at "making the terrorists understand that none of them are safe and that the Israeli army can strike anywhere it wants." Paragraph-6 Contains The army´s southern commander, General Yoav Galand, congratulated the elite force for carrying out the operation "without a single shot being fired." Paragraph-7 Contains Since withdrawing troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip last year, Israel has launched a number of covert operations to stop Palestinian militants firing rockets into southern Israel. Paragraph-8 Contains But Saturday´s raid was the time since last August´s withdrawal that Israel has arrested militants during the Gaza incursions. Paragraph-9 Contains The raid occurred at 3:30 am (0030 GMT) in the village of Umm al- Nasser, northeast of the southern town of Rafah and one kilometer (half a mile) in from the Israeli border, according to a Palestinian security officer. Paragraph-10 Contains The controversial operation came at a moment of heightened tensions along Gaza´s border with Israel, where Palestinian militants have fired hundreds of rockets against neighbouring Israeli areas. Paragraph-11 Contains Israel, in turn, has intensified air raids against militants and its artillery shelling of rocket launching areas across the Gaza Strip, claiming the lives of several civilians over the past month alone. (Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. 06/24/06)

If America is behind all the trouble in the world and you prefer living under the knife of such peaceful, gentle souls as the Khmer Rouge, Hizbollah or Hamas then why do you live here? We are by no means asking you to stay and you are free to leave at any time. If this doesn't reveal you as a hypocrite, what does? If I was so against America and her policies, I would be on the next train out. I wonder why you stay Who is paying you to work against America? I think it is our duty to find out.

At least in this interview, Chomsky never says that the capture of Shalit was due to the kidnapping of the two Palestinians the day before. He only says that Israel's moral abhorance to the taking of a soldier is cynical when Israel had done just the same to two Palestinians the day before. There is no assumption of cause and effect in these incidents, just a moral equivalence (which you can agree or disagree with) between the actions. Get your arguments straight. Instaed of setting up a strawman Chomsky with which to the take down, why don't you deal with the actual argument of Chomsky?

Chomsky's words make me sick. In the middle of a war, Chomsky, an anti-Israel, antisemite and holocaust-denier (read http://www.jcpa.org/phas/phas-30.htm) should be left in the extreme fringe where he belongs and denied place for throwing up his hate to us.

What else could one expect from the mind and pen of an individual who had nothing but praise and addulation for the barbaric Khmer Rouge. Chomsky should stick to linguistics and leave political commentary to those not tainted by gross hypocrisy and support of homicidal maniacs

kudos to you sir for standing up to the empire hubris.but is anyone listening ?or is anyone bothered?they probably will if any white blood is spilled.guess it will all end up like hiroshima when someone uses the nuke.as for the united nations organisation (oops it should actually read the united states organisation) ,it will probably and rightly so end up like the league of nations.i appreciate the ynetnews for daringly and refreshingly (for israeli news and media )publishing this article by chomsky.

Chomsky forgets in his analysis that the real problem is that whatever nice words, offers of negotiations, etc. 90% of arabs and a less percent.of muslims don't want Israel to exist and should Israel stop agressively and many times brutally defends itself long time ago there should be no Israel anymore. The rules of traditional wars and conflicts are not valid fighting against terrorists hidded amongst civilians. The arabs succeeded lying to the world that the problem is the occupation whereas the only problem is their intention (prooved) to destroy Israel !!

N. Chomski is only a linguistic. He has only little knowledge of the real issues involved, so serious readers do not take him very seriously. True, he is very eloquent and understand the 'art ' of demagogy.

Has Professor Chomsky been placed on The Book OF Lists ?. It appears so, judging by the meagre reprisals this time round of him being a self loathing Jew hater. Kudos to Ynet for providing the forum. Someone dismissed Israeli kidnapping as irrelevant because the doctor and his brother were terrorists. This is the same mantra that has been coming from the most malignant forces in Christendom in the Staes. Many Israelis are suffering presently due to decisions made in their name. Complain all you will about how the others want your destruction. Have you in fact not been calling for theirs? Wether it is the blathering simplicities of the American administration or those of Harvard law professor David Horowith who accuses Israel's enemies of every depravity shy of fornicating with sheep, the message is the same. Hate , pander to peoples fears, and at no time let your own citizens regard "the others " of meriting the same rights and opportunities. Disagree and you are a terrorist . Think and you are a leftist. Doesn't this remind you of anything in history ? Well it may be true that a great many Muslams will not abide having infidels at their gate. The Judeo-Christian intolerance I have witnessed is no better. I'm extremely fatigued by this abdication of thought. So the western media acquiesces to the belief that this all started because Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers. What if the other guy says, " NO. It started in a tent when one brother stole the heritage rightfully belonging to his sibling from their blind and dying father. So you disagree. Never contemplate that you could be as subject as "them" He's wrong. Kill him. Call me when the Easter bunny gets there. I'm checking out.

When rocket hit me home I feel angry and disperse. The entire world hates me. Why? I’m trying to find the answers. I’m turning to Muslim’s scholars and read what the say. And they say: “Jews are the second class people. They killed the prophets, they changed the Convent and God gave us, the Muslims, right to kill them.” I’m turning to the West to the enlighten Great Britain and I found that Mayor of London disputes the Holocaust. He doesn’t want the people like me have the Air, Sun, and Life. He wants us to be second-class people. And I ask myself: ” what is the difference between him and Hitler, Nasralla or BinLaden? Why the West, in some kind of majority, still pretends that hating the Jews is a cool? They changed the mantra – they are telling that there are Jews who are the good people who prey X times per day spend rest of the time in a back rooms, and Zionists – bad guys. They fight. They compete. They actually change the World. They came to the stony Land and turned it to Green. They revived DEAD language. Is this what piss hem off? I don’t understand why World still deprives Jews of the right to self-determination. Why any nation in the World has right to self-determination but no Jews? What wrong with those guys? Why tiny strip of the Earth named Israel works as magnet for the entire World. Why anybody doesn’t move when more then 2000 women and kids kill in Congo daily? But why any news agency spends millions of US Dollars to write full of venom stories about my country? Why after more then 2000 years Europe still hates us? What my 5 years daughter or I did to Red Ken? Why he hates us?

Ynet is clearly aiding and abetting our lunatic enemies and fanning the flames against Israel and the US by providing Chumpsky and his misguided "thinkers" with launchers for their lethal propaganda. On behalf of all those innocent people on both sides of the conflict who have died and will die, thanks Ynet!

Chomsky's claim on ANY degree of intellectual rigor is entirely compromised by his selective myopia. The bright beam of his formidable intellect, alas, has an extremely narrow scope. His main intellectual fallacy, and the source of his persistent disingenuousness, is that he approaches all the events with a predetermined thesis. He concentrates only on the elements that directly support his thesis, distorts those that are ambiguous, and ignores everything that goes counter. One glaring example is his TOTAL dismissal of the STATED GENOCIDAL GOALS of Iran, Hamas, Hizbullah, etc. Apparently it just does not fit into his situationist theorizing. Likewise, there is also very little intellectual rigor in examining his own assumptions for the motives behind Israel's actions. Struggling to give Mr. Chomsky any benefit of the doubt, I would attribute this to an onset of senility. Some of the more questionable excerpts: -"even a CASUAL LOOK at the Western press REVEALS..." -"A GOOGLE SEARCH will QUICKLY REVEAL..." -"VIRTUALLY ALL INFORMED observers AGREE..." -"OF COURSE, the PLO has OFFICIALLY BACKED A TWO-STATE SOLUTION FOR MANY YEARS" -"In the background are crucial FACTS emphasized by SEVERAL VETERAN Middle East correspondents. Rami Khouri, now an editor of Lebanon’s Daily Star, writes that “the Lebanese and Palestinians have RESPONDED to Israel’s persistent and increasingly SAVAGE ATTACKS AGAINST THE ENTIRE CIVILIAN POPULATION by creating parallel or alternative leaderships that can protect them and deliver essential services.” -"...US administration, which HAS MADE IT CLEAR that it SUPPORTS the DESTRUCTION of Palestine and Israeli VIOLENCE." -"...one can GENERALIZE a comment of Uri Avnery’s about Dan Halutz, who “views the world below through a bombsight.” -"IT IS NO SECRET that in past years, Israel has HELPED TO DESTROY secular Arab nationalism and TO CREATE Hizbullah and Hamas" AND THE GRAND CONCLUSION -" we can be REASONABLY CONFIDENT that viewing the world through a bombsight will bring further misery and suffering, perhaps even 'apocalypse soon.'" I WONDER IF MR. CHOMSKY EVEN READS WHAT HE WRITES?

The only paragraph that describes them as militants is paragraph 8, and this is a fault of AFP. It jumps from what the other paragraphs say - that Israel classifies them as militants - to automatically assuming that they are militants. Thus, unless you blindly believe whatever the IDF tells you, you cannot say they were militants.

What I find disturbing in this article is the obvious ignorance of the writer as to the islamic religion. These guys are forever attributing western values to a religion that does not subscribe to them. They (islam) could not even subscribe to the Universal declaration of human rights they had to have their own-- based on sharia To my mind one question I would like answered is--- How can you have an honourable treaty or negotiations with a religion that says you can lie to the infidel if it suits your purpose

May I ask you, Professor, who pays for your "intellectual" driveling nonsenses? When will you leave this land and where do you intend to live?

Why is this creep getting so much space here? Since Nim Chimpsky thinks he's so smart, maybe he can explain how it is that, since the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit was obviously an operation that had been planned way in advance (digging tunnels only takes 1 day?), how is it that the Palestinians "took their revenge" only 1 day later?

why bother giving the NUt attention. Only makes it worse.

Democracy at work in Israel and the USA. - the result of the brainwashed, misinformed public, only capable of ranting and name calling and fighting! No wonder the world is in this insane mess. When will the human species mature!!!??

Jenny, I find your comment to be grossly off-base and worrying. The United States was founded on a system of checks and balances, not only on the national level between branches, but on the civilian level as well. It is Mr. Chomsky's duty as an American to voice his opinion, no matter if it is in line with the status quo or not. These are the values that our country was founded on and I'll be damned if I am going to let someone tell me to be on the "next train out" because I contest the current administration's policies and motives. One can be a patriot and want the best for their country while at the same time offering intelligent commentary on the facts at hand. America has always prospered due to its healthy diversity in opinion and I don't think it is your place to critique Mr. Chomsky's heart or intentions.

These type of wimps who call themselves intelectuals to cover-up their mental disorder make me sick. The ugly face of the Media is that they glorify such miserables.

Islamists, in their hate for the Jewish people, would happily kill him or enslave him in dhimmitude.

the 2 Muamar hamas brothers were CAPTURED and not kidnaped by israeli soldiers. They commited some crimes and will certainly face to Justice in Israel. International Red Cross can visit them whenever they want, and palestinian famiilies can get news about their family members. Guilad Shalit has been KIDNAPED and as a soldier, he is normally considered as POW. Unfortunately, he cannot be visited by anyone, and we even don't know if he's alive. He's handed by EXTREMISTS who behaved badly towards prisonners. They follow same rules as those in Iraq who behead their captives with no mercy, in front of a video camera. Double standards? YES, because we don't treat prisonners as they treat our beloved. Then, Guilad was wearing the israeli uniform. He needs the support of ALL the israelis. Unfortunately, we have some traitors in our community like that Shomsky. I don't care about his nobel prize. This means he has been excellent in ONE field. He can be the best as a linguist, and that's all. He has nothing to do with humanitarian law, with Geopolitics, economy, Psychology.... For that, I don't consider him as having some knowledge. He can give his opinions as anyone is free to do, but I'm not obliged to consider his words as "coming out of the Bible". This english speaker should learn arabic at first. Then he could understand palestinian mentality, and the way they think and behave.

Jasmin, the only ethnicity in the world which is sometimes preceded by the word self hating ....is jew? why because people like you lack logic and resort to cheap shots like anti-semitic and when the critique comes from an honest jew who happens to grow a heart, he is self hating!!! how pathetic is you thinking and the likes of you.

Alex, Simply put, the world hates Jews because God chose them to carry the oracles of the Messiah and His coming. Two major manmade religions are still trying for world domination, the Roman Catholic Church and Islam. Therein lies the bulk of your opposition. Reformed Christianity in its true form has no desire for anything on this planet as we seek a better place in heaven. That is our belief and why we seek only to give this message to others and why we on the whole support Israel. Unfortunately true Christianity is not as widespread as it may appear and some within its fold but not really of its fold also have no great love for the Jews. But Alex, do not worry for it will surely come to pass that God will sort out all those who strike you. On the above commentary there are Quislings in every society, men who are financially safe from danger and blind to any reasoning other than their own egos.

With friends like Mr.Chomsky, who needs ennemies ? This man is (rather) notorious about linguistic studies, and leftist self-contradiction. But what does he know about Islam ? About sectarian behaviour ? About liers, murderers, thugs, terrorists, human bombs, propaganda ? The main line of his thought (so to speak) is quite simple : Western civilization, resp.The US, resp. Israel, resp. The Jews, are responsible for each and every mess you can find on planet Earth. Implicit Chomsky conclusion : Wipe out the jews, and/or Israel, and/or etc... (BTW, and/or Chomsky himself) and everything will be fine, Muslims will come back loving life instead of death, free virgins will run down the streets half naked, ready for use (wearing regular scarves, though) , and islamic states will instantly meet full & brilliant economic, social, and cultural success. Hisballah, Hamas, AlQaeda, Ahmadinejad, can't do better. My suggestion : Send Chomsky to Iran and/or let him be published by Al-Manar, Al-Arabiya of Al-French-Televisions, but, please, stop spoil Ynet pages with such cheap bullshit. IMHO, this is not what we expect on Ynet forums, we all appreciate.

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